Argumentative Essay

On Rap Music and the Youth

The Freedom of Choice or Stricter Parental Control

My wife and I strongly believe in giving our children the freedom to choose the paths by which they lead their lives . We do step in once in awhile but these interferences in their lives are very rare . Although my wife and I usually agree on when to intervene and when not to , there was this one case when we did not come to an agreement about my decision to step into my kids ' decision

Because of reports

in the media , I am of the impression that rap music can really bad for kids . So when I saw that there are already a huge number of rap titles in my children 's CD collection , I chose to take all of these titles away to veer my kids away from the harmful nature and violence associated with this kind of music . My wife , however , was furious at this decision , insisting that I overstepped my boundaries and is already curtailing our children 's freedom of choice . She attests that our children are intelligent beings able to discern what is good and what is not . I , on the other hand , that it was a move I had to make to ensure that I live up to my parental responsibility of ensuring that my children do not get too sucked up in the lure of inappropriate media offerings

As Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw 's Agenda-Setting Function theory outlines , although media cannot actually dictate what your opinion on a specific is , it can however dictate what s you think (Littlejohn , 2002 . And basing on the lyrics of the rap artists ' songs the s that rap music offer my kids are ones that are not appropriate for them . Raps talk about sex , drugs , and murders and are heavy laden with curses . Take these lyrics from Eminem 's , for example

Yeah , I probably got a couple of screws up in my head loose / But no worse , than what 's goin ' on in your parents ' bedrooms / Sometimes , I wanna get on TV and just let loose , but can 't / But it 's cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose "My bum is on your lips , my bum is on your lips / And if I 'm lucky , you might just give it a little kiss / And that 's the message that we deliver to little kids / And expect them not to know what a woman 's clitoris is (Mathers , 2000

This is language that I definitely do not want my children to be exposed to

Tim Crook (2002 ) has also written that radio - or music , for that matter - is a more psychological medium ' because its relationship with the audience is more emotional and psychological . As such , it can sometimes be more effective than the aural /visual media , like television and movies , in imparting influence . Hence , even if one person is really intelligent , s /he can still be swayed into making unpopular decisions thanks to the kind of media content s /he is being exposed to . And I do not want my children to have an influence that urges them to act and talk inappropriately for their age

As much as media 's influence on people - most especially the youth - are being downplayed by the TV and movie producers and song , it is undeniable that what they watch and listen to have a huge influence on children (End Youth Violence , 1999 . Knowing the gullible nature of children , I cannot help but agree with Susan Buttross ' statement Parents need to know what their children are being exposed to Certainly , rap is not the only music that portrays negative stereotypes or can negatively impact behaviors , and not all rap music should be implicated . But there have been nearly 1 ,000 studies that have looked at the effects that the media has on children 's behavior . And nearly all of them find there is a strong effect (Kirchheimer , 2003

While it is good to impart on children the value of the freedom of choice , my parental instinct still tell me that it is my responsibility to intervene in the situation of my kids ' music . Parents like me cannot and should not , as a Cracker .com forum poster mrc (2007 wrote , just surrender to the seeming consensus that media is to blame for youth violence . We must do something about it - and one way I know how is to censor the stuff that my children listen to